Aircraft makes emergency landing after smoke alert

Hyderabad, April 3 (IANS) A Hyderabad-Delhi flight of Kingfisher Airlines with 97 people on board Thursday made an emergency landing at the new international airport here when the pilot detected smoke in the cargo hold soon after the take-off. After the aircraft made an emergency but safe landing, the airline and airport authorities found an unidentified substance in the cargo hold.

According to airport operators, the flight IT-801 from Hyderabad to Delhi with 90 passengers and seven crewmembers on board took off at 6.25 a.m. They, however, said the aircraft landed normally.

“After taking off, the captain alerted ATC saying that he was receiving a smoke detection indication in the cargo hold of the aircraft. As per the standard airline procedure, he requested for return to Hyderabad. The aircraft landed normally and taxied to a standard parking position where the passengers deplaned as usual,” said a statement late this evening.

“During the precautionary unloading of the cargo, an unidentified substance was located. This is being investigated by the airline and facilitated by the airport operator.”

After the consignment was offloaded and a through check of the remaining cargo, the aircraft took off for Delhi.

This is the first such incident at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad near here since it commenced commercial operations March 23.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson of the airline said one of the consignments cleared by the security screening staff contained a powder, which would not otherwise have been accepted and cleared for carriage by Kingfisher Airlines’ security screening staff.

At the new airport, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL), the developers and operators, conduct security screening and not the concerned airlines.

The airport, located about 30 km from the city and India’s first greenfield airport in public private partnership, has so far handled around 210,000 passengers including 33,000 international passengers.